Jets trying to get Shonn Greene to make people miss once in a while

Shonn Greene's instinct, when confronted with a would-be tackler, is to try to run the guy over. The Jets think he'll get more yards, and maybe reduce the wear and tear on his body, if he jukes a defender once in a while.Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger

During the running backs’ film session this past week, everyone around Shonn Greene had a rare opportunity to poke fun at his punishing, straightforward running style.

Normally, as he bulls over defenders, they keep their criticisms silent. They know Greene is athletic enough to juke or spin or sidestep. He simply chooses not to.

But in the second quarter last week against Pittsburgh, they all saw him take the draw handoff on a second-and-10, bolt through the blocking lane and uncork his powerful frame head-on into Steelers safety Ryan Mundy.

Greene wobbled a bit as he stood up. When he came back to the huddle, he stumbled again, nearly falling into quarterback Mark Sanchez. Greene said a brief spell of dizziness set in and he was later tested for a concussion, though he passed.

“He was a little drunk,” fellow running back Joe McKnight said, smiling. “(He looked like) he had a shot of Patron.

“We’ll tell him, ‘Hey, Shonn, make a move! And he’s like, ‘Nah, I’m just going to run through him.’ It’s hard for us to get Shonn to make a move. Like, ‘Save your body.’ He just likes imposing his will on other people.”

As the Jets prepared for today’s game against the Miami Dolphins, McKnight said he knows it’s not stubbornness. Greene always has been a power back, conditioned through high school and college to believe that he can wear down a defense with each hit. But with a new season come changes, one of which is a more concerted effort to develop big-gain plays. Running into the safety or linebacker usually ends the down. Running around him could extend it.

Through constant drilling and study, identifying the moment where Greene can set up the safety and then juke, the Jets are looking to motivate him to incorporate more finesse moves in his arsenal. In his fourth and final year of his contract, everything is finally set up for him — a run-first coach and a solidified offensive line — to exceed expectations. Now they want to see more evolution so he can meet those goals.

“He’s a physical back, but I want him to learn to make safeties miss more,” running backs coach Anthony Lynn said. “He has the mentality to punish defenders, and I think that’s a good mentality for a power back. But I also want him to sometimes step around them.”

TURNER'S EXAMPLE

In the past two seasons, Greene has logged 63.9 percent of his rushing attempts between the left guard and the right guard, giving him plenty of opportunities to break through the first line of defense and encounter those one-on-one situations. He racked up 1,034 yards after first contact, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Ravens’ Ray Rice, considered one of the league’s hardest-running backs, had 1,421. Maurice Jones-Drew of the Jaguars had 1,812.

But the ideal example is a back that Greene often watches on film. Lynn considers him a prototypical “A-Back,” and a clone of Greene’s — Atlanta’s Michael Turner.

Turner, Lynn said, is an every-down back with a consistent mix of power and the secondary speed or juke moves the Jets are looking for Greene to imitate. Turner led the power backs with 1,860 yards after first contact in the past two years.

In practice, the Jets have Greene working the Heisman pose drill, where he’ll extend his forearm to keep second-level tacklers from wrapping up his legs — the most logical target spot for a defender looking to bring him down.

They study the art of attack angles — choosing the right away to approach the second level so that the defender has to defend the entire field and not force the ball carrier to one sideline with ease.

They look at ways to “set up” defenders, or put them in a compromising position where they’re susceptible to a move. That might be easier done in a film room than on the field today. The Dolphins’ run defense is the fourth-best in the league during the early portion of the season, having yielded 53 yards per game and shutting down Oakland’s Darren McFadden (11 carries, 22 yards) last weekend.

“I’m still trying to master it,” Greene said. “You have to be repetitive with it. I try to assimilate it in practice and, you know, when guys are coming at you and you’re trying to make a move.”

Lynn said he has seen some wrinkles show on tape already. Like the spin move, one that was integrated last year, it takes time but the most obvious improvement has been the angles. Greene is not hurdling, spinning or bobbing yet, but he is in a better position to do so.

“They’re looking for me to run them over, so I kind of have to surprise them,” Greene said. “I’ll give them a little head nod, a little one-two, dipping my shoulder in and out.”

This season, Greene is on pace for 304 carries, even with just 11 last week against Pittsburgh because of the concussion exam. That would give him more than 50 carries above last season’s total and a comparable sample size to that of Turner’s, who had 334 carries in 2010 and 301 last year.

Until this point, his coaches feel they haven’t had an adequate statistical measurement to judge his potential.

“If Greene hits that 300-carry mark this year, I think his style of play and his numbers will be as good as Michael Turner’s,” Lynn said. “Or anyone else’s.”
CRACK OF THE PADS

Matt Slauson can feel the mood in a stadium shift when Greene barrels over someone.
During film sessions, the crack of his pads still can be heard. Slauson is all for Greene trying to juke someone, but there is a benefit to his style, even if it gains less yardage.

“I just think he gets a kick out of running people over, and we do, too,” Slauson said. “We love seeing it. If he wants to be that powerful back, I don’t care. If it takes a few yards off the end of the run, so what? That makes a statement.”

Head coach Rex Ryan said he expects a majority of Greene’s chunk plays to come from running people over while maintaining his stride. He said he didn’t possess “God-given” speed like the running back on the other sideline this afternoon, Reggie Bush.

Ryan’s comfortable with the way Greene runs, even after he slogged to the sidelines last weekend against Pittsburgh begging to go back in and do it again.

“He came right up to me and was like, ‘I’m ready to go; can I get my helmet back?’ ” Ryan said. “I just looked at him and said, ‘Get over there. Go with the trainers and doctors, somebody that knows what they’re doing.’ ”

It is an identity, and one that Greene is slowly modifying. He sees the tape, sees Turner and Jones-Drew and Rice, and knows what is possible.

It is up to him when the moment comes, halfway between a clean getaway and a punch-drunk pileup, for Greene to pick the next move.